ABSTRACT
Architecture, like people, is a central element of cities. Buildings always surround us and human bodies are constantly engaging with them. Despite architecture’s importance to the city, it has historically not occupied a principal position in urban theory. Perhaps this reflects the wider tendency to omit the ‘ordinary’ dimensions of cities (Robinson 2006) or because many social scientists have felt that buildings are best left to architects. However, this is beginning to change as a new wave of urban scholars turn their attention to architecture and the built environment. This chapter introduces the three main approaches that have developed to study architecture in urban theory. The first is work that has explored buildings as symbol and the second is scholarship that has investigated architecture in the everyday. The third is research that has turned towards the architects themselves and calls for more urban researchers to consider and study architecture. It also argues that now is the time to examine more fully the relationship between architectural design and human response because of the wider advancements made in urban theory.
